How to adopt in Puerto Rico: requirements and court process

Adoption is the judicial process by which a person becomes legally the child of whoever adopts them. In Puerto Rico adoptions can be public — when the minor is in the Department of the Family’s custody — or private. It can arise from an adoption agreement during pregnancy, from the voluntary surrender of a child under three by whoever holds parental authority, or when the minor has already been freed of parental authority. The Department of the Family is the agency charged with overseeing adoption processes and administers REVA, the Voluntary State Adoption Registry, which allows early identification of prospective adopters. The judicial process takes place in the Family Relations Courtroom of the Court of First Instance where the adopting party resides.

The requirements to adopt are having reached majority age — except in a joint adoption where one adopter is of age and the other is under 21 but not under 18 —, having legal capacity to act, and being at least 14 years older than the minor to be adopted. People declared incapacitated cannot adopt while the incapacity lasts, nor can those sentenced to imprisonment while the sentence lasts. Those who can be adopted are unemancipated minors, emancipated minors who have not married, and adults where they lived in the adopter’s home since before turning 18 and still live there when the petition is filed. Those who cannot be adopted are people who have already reached majority age by the decree’s date even if they were minors when the petition was filed, married people even if minors, the adopter’s ascending relatives by blood or affinity, and a guardian by their ward or vice versa until the guardianship’s final accounts are approved by final decree.

• Having reached majority age. Exception: in a joint adoption, one adopter can be under 21 but not under 18, provided the other is of age.Verified against the official source
• Having legal capacity to act.Verified against the official source
• Being at least 14 years older than the minor to be adopted.Verified against the official source
• If adopting your partner’s child: having at least two years of marriage, in addition to the 14-year age gap.Verified against the official source
• If you reside in a US state: obtaining and paying for a social study attesting to your capacity and fitness, to determine whether you qualify to enter REVA.Verified against the official source
• Filing the sworn petition in the Family Relations Courtroom of the Court of First Instance where the adopting party resides.Verified against the official source

• The sworn adoption petition, with the names of the adopting party and the biological parent, their addresses and phone numbers.
• The reasons the adoption serves the minor’s best interests, and its usefulness and necessity.
• The adoptee’s name as it appears on their birth certificate, and the proposed name for their new certificate.
• The adopting party’s personal circumstances: residential and postal address, phone, employer’s name and address, place of business, and source of income, pensions or rents as applicable.
• To enter REVA: the application and documents required by the Adoption Unit of the Department of the Family where you reside.

1. 1

   Step 1: Confirm the three requirements

   Majority age, legal capacity to act, and at least 14 years older than the minor to be adopted. You need not be married: a single person can adopt individually and an unmarried couple in a marriage-like relationship can adopt jointly. Same-sex couples can adopt jointly if married or in an analogous or compatible relationship.

2. 2

   Step 2: If adopting your partner’s child, count the two years

   A married person can adopt their partner’s child, but must have at least two years of marriage, in addition to the 14-year age gap with the minor. It is the requirement most often overlooked in within-family adoptions.

3. 3

   Step 3: Enter REVA through the Department of the Family

   REVA is the confidential electronic registry listing minors whose permanency plan is adoption and interested adopting parties, in chronological order of application and of favorable social study. With that information the Department of the Family identifies possible matches, evaluated by the Candidate Selection Panel. To enter, you complete an application with the documents the Adoption Unit where you reside requires. For guidance, the Department of the Family answers on its Family Orientation and Support Line at 1 (888) 359-7777 and (787) 977-8022.

4. 4

   Step 4: Petition or complaint: it depends on parental authority

   If the minor to be adopted has already been freed of parental authority, an adoption petition is filed. If they have not, an adoption complaint is filed. It is the fact that decides which document you take to the clerk’s office, and confusing it gets the filing sent back.

5. 5

   Step 5: Notice and answer

   Once the petition is filed, interested parties are notified by summons, whether by edict, in person or by certified mail with return receipt. The parties have 15 days from service of the notice to state their position.

6. 6

   Step 6: Private hearings and decree

   Hearings in adoption proceedings are private: the public is not admitted to the courtrooms where they are held. The adoption process can run at the same time as other judicial proceedings involving the minor, and someone who signed an adoption agreement with the Department of the Family or an agency can request they be consolidated with the adoption case.

In the Family Relations Courtroom of the Court of First Instance where the adopting party resides. For REVA and prior guidance, at the Adoption Unit of the Department of the Family in your area, or by calling 1 (888) 359-7777 or (787) 977-8022.

• Believing you must be married: a single person can adopt individually.
• Adopting a partner’s child without the two years of marriage required in addition to the 14-year gap.
• Filing a petition when the minor has not been freed of parental authority, which goes by complaint.
• Residing in the US without the social study you must obtain and pay for to enter REVA.
• Assuming the decree can be revoked later: after six months it is final.
• Thinking the decree changes the birth certificate on its own: that is a separate procedure, at the Demographic Registry.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Poder Judicial de Puerto Rico

  Poder Judicial

  poderjudicial.pr

• Judiciary forms catalog (OAT adoption forms)

  Poder Judicial

  poderjudicial.pr

• Petition for Validation and Recognition of an Out-of-State Judgment (exequatur) — OAT 1846

  Poder Judicial

  poderjudicial.pr